[admin] New Project Request: CFFI

[James Bielman]

Hi,

I'd like to host my new project CFFI at cl.net.

Description:

(Sorry if this is way more detail than you need, this will probably
become the README once I'm done writing it :-)

CFFI, the Common Foreign Function Interface, purports to be a portable
foreign function interface, similar in spirit to UFFI.

Unlike UFFI, CFFI requires only a small set of low-level functionality
from the Lisp implementation, such as calling a foreign function by
name, allocating foreign memory, and dereferencing pointers.

More complex tasks like accessing foreign structures can be done in
portable "user space" code, making use of the low-level memory access
operations defined by the implementation-specific bits.  (This is not
yet implemented, however).

CFFI also aims to be more efficient than UFFI when possible.  In
particular, UFFI's use of aliens in CMUCL and SBCL can be tricky to
get right.  CFFI avoids this by using system area pointers directly
instead of alien objects.  All foreign function definitions and uses
should compile without alien-value compiler notes in CMUCL/SBCL.

CFFI is being developed initially against SBCL and OpenMCL.  Support
for CMUCL should be straightforward.  From cursory inspection of the
documentation it should be possible to support Allegro CL, but a
Lispworks port may be difficult without vendor support.  Whether CLISP
can be supported easily is currently unknown.

Project Name: cffi
Developer: jamesjb "James Bielman"
License: MIT

Thanks!

James